COLUMBUS, Ohio - Ohio House lawmakers got their first chance Tuesday to delve into some details of Gov. John Kasich's budget proposal at a hearing before the Finance and Appropriations Committee.

Democratic lawmakers have been fairly vocal about their objections to the "Ohio's Jobs Budget 2.0," but Kasich's fellow Republicans seem to be taking a more cautious approach to the proposal.

"I don't think any of us are taking a position on something we don't understand yet," said Rep. Ron Amstutz, a Wooster Republican who chairs the House Finance and Appropriations Committee. "Except we take the position that we have a lot of work to do."

Timothy Keen, director of the Office of Budget and Management, explained during nearly two hours of testimony in front of the committee the mixed bag of measures in the $63.3 billion budget, including a Medicaid expansion traditionally eschewed by the GOP and proposed income and sales tax cuts that align with the party's ideals.

Keen gave an overview of the proposed budget, which is expected to be delivered in full next week.

"The sense based on 24 hours of review is that this is a very comprehensive, well thought out proposal by the administration," Amstutz said.

"There are some rushing to judgment on the negative, but I think it's too early to do that."

Budget highlights

Ken Marshall, The Plain Dealer

Since Kasich unveiled his proposal on Monday, Democratic lawmakers have welcomed the Medicaid expansion. But they have been quick to issue statements criticizing other components of the plan, including the tax restructuring, which they say will disproportionately benefit the wealthy.

Republican legislative leaders, however, have held back, and several calls to GOP leaders for comment Tuesday went unanswered.

But Kasich has won a key GOP blessing as he seeks to unite conservatives around his plan.

Influential anti-tax activist Grover Norquist has written state legislators in support of Kasich's proposal to overhaul the state tax code, said Joshua Culling, government affairs manager for Norquist's Americans for Tax Reform group.

Kasich's plan calls for lower income-tax and sales-tax rates, but also an expansion of the sales-tax base and an increase to the severance tax that applies to horizontal drilling by oil and gas companies mining the state's rich shale deposits.

The first-term governor has signed Norquist's Taxpayer Protection Pledge -- a promise to oppose any and all tax increases. But Americans for Tax Reform backs his plan because "the increases you get from some of the base-broadening and the severance tax is more than offset" by the sales-tax cut and across-the-board income-tax reductions, Culling said.

"The proposal is a net tax cut of over $1 billion, reducing the overall burden on taxpayers rather than using reform as a Trojan Horse for tax increases," Norquist said in his letter, sent Tuesday afternoon. "And it expands access to school vouchers for an unprecedented number of low-income students currently locked into underperforming schools."

Republicans hold healthy majorities in the Ohio House and Senate, and some conservatives are likely to have reservations about the severance tax and other components of Kasich's proposed budget.

The Medicaid expansion will surely be a point of contention as it moves through the legislature, according to Matt Mayer, a conservative activist who leads the Opportunity Ohio think tank.

"How much is going to get through? If I had a crystal ball I could answer that. But there already is a movement afoot to draw a line in the sand and say if a legislator votes for Medicaid expansion, he or she will have a primary [in 2014]," Mayer said. "And it will be a primary from a credible alternative -- we're not talking about a wing nut conservative."

Mayer said he has heard from other conservatives interested in leading such an effort.

"It's one thing to defend a lone Republican in a primary," he said. "But does the House Caucus really have enough money to defend 10 members in a primary? There are enough of us who have grown tired with the cheap talk that comes out of our political class and the political actions they end up taking."

As members of the House Finance and Appropriations Committee heard from Keen Tuesday, the governor traveled to the Cleveland area to promote his budget plan.

"I'm pleased that Americans for Tax Reform has endorsed this," Kasich told reporters after a presentation at Applied Metal Technologies Ltd. in Brooklyn Heights. "We achieved this not just with broadening the base, but there's [also] restraint in spending, all of which comes together. And the good stewardship over the last two years gives us that very significant surplus, which can be sent back to the taxpayers."

The 31 members of the House Finance and Appropriations Committee will explore the proposed budget's tax reform plan during a hearing scheduled Feb. 12. The committee will turn its attention the next day to the budget's education reform components.

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